We’re ushering in fall with a couple of new coffees on the menu, and we couldn’t be more stoked. Our gaze has been captured by Eastern Africa lately as some of this years samples have been rolling in. We’ve selected two coffees to be released immediately that we’re particularly excited about.
Reko Station is a small washing station in the Kochere region of Ethiopia that has seen very little publicity in recent years. Reko Station has been milling coffees from the surrounding hills for just over a decade. The Station services about 850 smallholder families, typically only having a couple hundred coffee trees producing varied, heirloom varietals of coffee. These small farms range in altitude between 1850 and 2100 MASL. Reko adheres to a fairly typical Washed Process, with a fermentation time that lasts between 36-48 full hours.

This particular lot blew us away immediately on the cupping table with a strong aroma dripping of jasmine, perfume and citrine notes. The body is layered with several different citrus zones of meyer lemon and candied mandarin. The finish is crisp, sharp, and has a beautiful ginger-snap bite at the end. This has become a quick favorite around the shop for an after-dinner cup; it plays so nice with desert.

Even though Ethiopia borders Kenya, the Reko Station and the Rugeju Factory couldn’t be any more different. At a still-high-but-lower altitude, the Rugeju factory sits at 1550 MASL, and services a much smaller geographic area. Rugeju services around 400 smallholder farms that are part of the Mkumbune Cooperative, growing a mix of Scott Labs 28 and Scott Labs 34 varietals; two very common varietals for Kenya.

This offering struck us immediately with mellow tones of sweet redfruit and wine in the nose; think a well balanced sangria. A sweet muscat grape snap lives in the relatively full body, alongside a rich milk-chocolate. The finish has a lovely raisin quality to it, and is long as satisfying. A very classic Kenyan offering to enjoy this fall as the mornings cool off, but makes a lovely cold brew if the days get too warm.

Looking to get your hands on these coffees? They both hit the shelves at Pastaworks in Northwest Portland in City Market this week.

The variables influencing coffee flavor are a bit mysterious.

A complex alchemy of different factors –including bean variety, weather, altitude, soil condition and roasting style– all contribute to a coffee’s unique flavor profile. Some of these factors the farmers control, some we –the roasters– control and other factors, like brewing method, your local coffee shop (or home brewer) controls.

In what way does ‘process’ effect the flavor of our coffee?

One of the many conditions impacting flavor has to do with the way in which beans are processed after they’re harvested. In other words, the way in which the coffee bean is extracted from the fruit.

Join us for a unique tasting experiment where we’ll parse out the effects that process has on flavor.

Marigold invites you to our cupping ‘lab’ where we’ll be showcasing a terrific new coffee and a very unusual opportunity to taste the effects of process, and process only. We have three coffees that all come from the same farm and that are all the same variety: 100% Pacamara. To tease out the factor of processing, each coffee is also roasted similarly. The only difference is the process in which the coffee bean has been removed from the cherry. We’re super excited to share this coffee with you and to found out which process is your personal favorite.

We’ll be cupping these coffees throughout July. Space is limited, so send an email at marigoldcoffee@gmail.com if you are interested!

About the coffee: Finca Las Delicias, El Salvador.

Our Roaster, Matt Sanders, has had the fortune and privilege of working with Guillermo and Miguel Menendez, for several years now. These El Salvadorian farmers have some of the highest quality segregated Bourbon and Pacamara lots that the country has to offer. One of their highest-quality farms, and a favorite around the roastery, is Finca Las Delicias.

In recent years, the Menendez family has taken a selection of coffees from their farms and deviated from the washed farm level processing, typical of the region. Their mill also set aside a selection of their Pacamara lot to be Pulp Natural Processed, and Natural Processed. This year, all three styles were made available to us and we jumped at the chance to add them to our offerings list.

Pacamara Washed The washed processing removes all of the skin, fruit and pulp off of the coffee bean. It’s then left to ferment inside large water tanks and is then dried on patios.

Our flavor notes: Aroma of buckwheat and honey. A delicate body with a strong clementine and tangerine note that segues into a pleasant, sharp cocoa-nib bite at the close. This offering produces a delicate, complex and clear cup.

Pacamara Pulp-Natural The Pulp-natural processing removes the skin and fruit of the coffee bean, but leaves the sticky pulp, or mucilage in place. It is then left to ferment in it’s own pulp before removal. It is then finished with a drying process on the patio.

Our flavor notes: Flavors of fig preserves and brown-butter. A well constructed medium body holds up notes of plum and milk chocolate sweetness. This coffee has a longer finish, like berry wine. A mellow, satisfying option.

Pacamara Natural The Natural, or Dry processing method leaves the entire fruit intact around the coffee bean intact.The Natural, or Dry processing method is the oldest style used by coffee growers. The cherries are ’naturally’ dried, typically in the sun on patios, with the beans inside, like drying a grape into a raisin.

Our flavor notes: Aroma of strawberry with a creamy top note. Low toned, with a big, winey fruit in the body. The finish is creamy with a channel of mellow chocolate running throughout. The most intense of all three offerings.

Single Origin-Blend.

In addition to offering all three distinctly processed coffees, we’ve added a fourth, surprise element! We developed a very unique roaster-constructed Single Origin Blend, consisting of of 80% Washed, 10% Pulp Natural and 10% Full Natural, all roasted together. This offering showcases a broad spectrum of qualities expressed by a single cultivar, from a single farm.

Our flavor notes: Sweet, honey and milk flavors are balanced by a sangria-like snap in the body. Big citrus and fruit flavors like strawberry are complimented with a chocolate syrup-like finish.

We’re on an El Salvador binge this year, and we’re not ashamed of it. Every sample, every producer that we’ve had the pleasure of cupping up here at the roaster has been a huge hit. It’s been quite difficult to edit our menu down to our favorites.

The Botto family farm is located in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador, near the small town of Metapan. The coffee is taken from the Botto’s small 160 acre farm and milled at Beneficio San Miguel Ingenio, a small wet milll that services the several dozen small to medium sized coffee producers in the area. This particular selection is a mix of two varietals, primarily Bourbon, making up 95% of the lot, and Pacas making up the remaining 5%.Our owner Joey has had the pleasure of working closely with Maria Botto and her farm Nombre de Dios for several years now; but this is the first time we’ve taken the plunge and imported her grand reserve lot, and are we ever glad we did.

That’s all well and done, but how does it taste? Nombre de Dios Reserva is a highly structured coffee with a clean, united profile. Deep aromas of sweet vanilla and bakers chocolate live in the nose. After wetted, the cup displays huge flavors of hazelnut and milk chocolates, supported by a dark-malt sugar sweetness. A slight hint of grilled peaches lives in the finish. Its as if Nutella and your favorite Porter had cup of coffee as a lovechild. We couldn’t ask for anything better.

We look forward to working with the Botto family again this upcoming year, and continue to explore the superb coffees they grow.

We are very fortunate to share a building with some other awesome businesses and every once in a while we all take

time out of our schedules to throw a party.

We call ourselves Producers Portland and if you show up you can tour of our spaces and enjoy the wares!

Brandymaking, Coffee Roasting, Clothing making, a Mold Maker featuring two Choclatiers, there will also be Psychic Siamese Terror reading Tarot, and a Raclette , basically a flaming round of cheese to snack from.

It’s the time of year we start hunkering down and preparing for the rain and the gray. Fortunately, the denizens of the northwest have perfected the anti-winter self-medicating cocktail that starts everyday with a cup of coffee. Finca Santa Barbara’s 100% bourbon, washed process selection has been on a heavy rotation around the shop to ward away the gloom.

Our newest roaster, Matt Sanders, has had the fortune and privilege of working with Guillermo and Miguel Menendez, for several years now. These El Salvadorian producers have some of the highest quality segregated Bourbon and Pacamara lots that the country has to offer, and they routinely score on the higher end of the country-wide Cup of Excellence competition.

Santa Barbara is located in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, specifically Cerro Las Ranas, or Mountain of the Frogs. Of it’s full 69 acres of land, 12 are untouched rain forrest and the remaining 57 acres of bourbon plants are interspersed with new growth forrest so well tended that Finca Santa Barbara earned a 94.92% score towards their Rain Forrest Alliance Certification; well exceeding the score to qualify.

Finca Santa Barbara sends its coffee to the shared Beneficio Piedra Grande, where it is washed, and put to patio to dry. Workers at the farm, and processing mill receive superior benefits and wages in many cases exceeding El Salvadorian law.

What does this all mean for the cup? This high-quality 100% Bourbon varietal lot has a dry aroma of bakers spice and light cinnamon. After wetted, Santa Barbara displays a floral character that borderlines on summertime Magnolia Blossoms. The cup itself is incredibly cohesive and structured; flavors of candied coconut and sweet milk chocolate inhabit a creamy bodied cup, tied together with a light toasted almond tannin. Lets call it what is is, this coffee tastes like an Almond Joy. The ultimate Almond Joy that is. This offering is incredibly satisfying, and a great way to hold off these rainy days.

We’re so happy to have this coffee. Year in and year out, the Ixil A’achimbal impresses us with their dedication to quality. It’s a really classic Guatemalan cup with a really dense aroma that houses a quick floral hit, followed by a navel orange sweetness, and underpinned by a coacoa-nib bitterness. The body has big, dark chocolate flavors about, held up by a balanced medium body, and finishes with a creamy, almost milk-chocolate tail.

This is a really versatile offering, and can be brewed anyway you’d like; Around the shop, we’ve been enjoying it as a Single-Origin Espresso, but it plays well with a pour-over or french press just as well. It’s a truly satisfying cup.

A quick history lesson on Ixil A’achimbal; even though they’ve been around as a loosely defined group since the late 1980’s after the end of the Guatemalan civil war, they recently became an official, legal cooperative in 2012 (everyone still calls the group Ixil A’achimbal, because APROCAFE just doesn’t have the same ring to it).

They came from pretty humble beginnings; the 80 families that comprised the original collective had only 25 acres to farm back in the early 90’s. This has slowly grown to a full 635 acre tract that they raise bananas, lemons, oranges, and most importantly, coffee.

The goal of the cooperative has always been to produce the highest quality coffee to earn top dollar for their hard work, and it shows. Ixil A’achimbal only plants Bourbon and Typica varietal coffee, which is some of the most coveted specialty coffee out there. And they grow it well. We’re happy to bring this offering to everyone out there, and can’t wait for next year’s lot. Enjoy!